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Who’s Zoomin’ Who?

Get a 1,000 followers in a day!
Get 20,000 followers in a week!Be on the first page of Google!
Sell 3,000 books on Kindle in 7 days!

I don’t know why anyone goes to a job anymore since making millions on the internet is so easy you can do it in your sleep just by pressing a button.

What? Oh? You can’t? It’s a little tougher than that?

Really?

The above are the headlines that make me crazy. I sit there and say, “I’m not pulling numbers like that. What am I doing wrong?”

Two separate articles and the latest Google algorithm update went a long way towards making me feel better.

The Google update knocked a lot of people off the front page of search listings. One strategy in particular – backlinking -- back-fired big-time. (I love alliteration.) I remember when that strategy came out. I had a friend who had tried an SEO backlinking technique that had totally screwed his rankings. Then someone came out with a big SEO backlinking “System” and everyone jumped on the bandwagon. I was ignored when I posted in a marketing group that the system wouldn’t work. In fact, I wrote a blog post about it (http://themarketingword.com/marketing/you-cant-game-google/). But all the SEO guys knew better than I did. A month later, BAM. The Google hammer came down. The latest Google algorithm change popped one of my websites up to the first page. It is a website that has fresh, original content. No gimmicky SEO anything. Go figure.

About a month ago, the BBC broke the news that Facebook had over 83 million fake accounts – about 8.7% of its population. (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19093078) This affects the dollar value of Facebook’s advertising. But it also calls into question some of those strategies that promise to add 1,000 or more “Likes” to your fan page. They may “really, really like” you, but do “they” actually exist?

Then, about a week ago, it was revealed that many of the high-profile Twitter accounts – those social media rock stars with massive followings – were purchasing their followers, not attracting them with their message or even getting followers who, well… actually followed. (http://site-reference.com/articles/high-profile-tweeters-busted-for-purchasing-twitter-followers/) There are thousands of inactive Twitter accounts. Having these “followers” doesn’t do anything to bring in business.

It comes down to the old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And I hate that. I wish there was an easier way to let people know that I put out quality work and I care about whether or not what I do helps my clients. But it just ain’t that way.

Marketing, online and offline, is damn hard work. Or maybe I should say marketing ethically is damn hard work. But in other ways, it is very, very easy. Create strong content. Give value. Deliver on what you promise. Work consistently towards your goals. Most of all, interact with your clients -- on social media, in real life, through your emails. Just because the world is using more technology to market and to buy doesn’t mean that the personal touch, a real relationship, is obsolete. In fact, it is even more necessary now than ever before.

It doesn’t make any sense to go skyrocketing up in numbers – followers or Google rankings or fake five star Amazon ratings -- if it is all going to get taken away from you. Build your business for the long term. It’s sometimes frustrating. You feel like everyone else is zooming past you. But a solid business will take care of you long after all the “rock stars” have fallen off the map. And the relationships that you build, the real relationships, will create a successful life that no impersonal, automated business could ever produce.

Thanks for a great blog! I sometimes I get caught up in the “numbers” (my next goal is 10,000 FB “likes”), but I do realize that what matters much more is how interactive friends/followers/etc are. Lots of “likes” means nothing if these people aren’t paying attention, or, worse yet, if they’re not even real.

While history tells us “the truth will set you free” the hype of many – flash n the pan – internet marketers will set many others free… free from their money. I totally agree with you Barbara. Relationships based on quality and value will build your business and it is hard but worthwhile work!